The USS Freedom, built at Marinette Marine Corp. in Marinette, left its home port in San Diego for its first overseas deployment to Southeast Asia.

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A new type of U.S. Navy ship built at Marinette Marine Corp. in Marinette left San Diego on Friday morning for an eight-month deployment to Southeast Asia - the first such deployment for the ship class.

The USS Freedom is the first of a new class of ships - known as the Littoral Combat Ship - designed to operate in coastal and shallower waters around the world. This deployment is expected to yield additional data on how the crew and Navy can use the ship.

"The crew is going to be able to take it through its paces and prove out the concept of operations the Navy developed, as well as figure out what else they ...